Sheet material stacker



Nov. 5, 1940. N, R. JONES ET AL SHEET MATERIAL STACKER Original Filed March 26, 1937' 6W0 BE/K/fl/V/N A. Cease/v ATTORNEY.

Patented Nov. 5, 1940 UNlEl) STATES PATENT i HQE SHEET MATERIAL STACKER Delaware Original application March 26, 1937, Serial No.

Divided and this application April 30,

1938, Serial No. 205,382

Claims.

This invention relates to stacking apparatus for sheet material, and more particularly to stacking apparatus as applied to photoradio or facsimile machines and, furthermore, comprises a 5 division of co-pending application Serial Number 133,137 filed March 26, 1937.

Such machines are well known at the present time in their broader concepts, and this apparatus has been particularly useful for use with the so-called Young facsimile receiver as illustrated in U. S. Patent Re. 20,152, granted to C. J. Young. The Young machine in its broadest concept comprises a receiver drum with a helical section mounted on the periphery thereof, the drum rotating in synchronism with a transmitter drum. The transmitter picks up line by line electrical impulses representative of the optical density value along each line, and these impulses are transmitted to the receiver where they actu- 20 ate a striker or presser mechanism which is located immediately adjacent the elongated spiral or helix on the receiver drum. The recording material has in general been paper although, of course, other recording mediums may be used. A sheet of carbon paper is maintained in intimate relationship with the recording material along a line tangential to the receiver drum and these two materials pass together between the receiver drum and the striker or presser bar or bars so that impulses which actuate the bar or bars leave a deposit of elemental size on the recording material at the-point where the striker or presser bar or bars is forced against the raised helix. As this application is not concerned particularly with the operating details of this portion of the machine, for a more complete understanding, reference should be had to the Young Patent Re. 20,152, hereinbeiore referred to.

It is within the contemplation of present day facsimile practice that a portion of the expense attached to the transmission of such material may be borne by advertising. Accordingly, the side of the sheet recording material on which the intelligence which is transmitted is not recorded, that is to say the back of the material, may be printed with advertising matter which is properly arranged with respect to each sheet of transmitted material; that is to say, for instance, if the normal size of the picture or intelligence which is to be transmitted is of the order of say 11" or 12" in length, then when the sheet is cut from the roll of material on which the intelligence is recorded, the advertising matter should be in correct alignment with the recorded material. As the advertising matter would be printed prior to the placing of the blank roll of recording material in the machine, naturally not only must the recording be synchronous as set forth in our application Serial Number 133,135, filed March 26, 1937, but the action of the cutting device must be definitely related to the action of the machine.

The material has in general been passed on to some form of collecting or supporting apparatus after it has been cut into sheets. The most desirable form of support has in general consisted of two cylindrical bars of nominal diameter spaced apart with regard to each other and hence comprising a divided support for the sheet. The bars have been maintained at an angle with respect to each other so that at or near one portion of their length the sheet material was more narrow than the spacing of the bars, and hence would fall between the bars into a collecting pan or tray. Difiiculty arose due to the fact that the paper had a tendency to become electrostatically charged during its passage through the machine and across the bars, and as a result tending to freeze against the bars or curl, and our stacking mechanism has been so arranged that this problem is overcome.

It is also within the contemplation of those skilled in this particular art that the average user of this machine may very easily forget and leave the machine running for a time which under certain circumstances might be undesirable, Therefore, we provide in conjunction with the stacking mechanism a means which will automatically shut off the machine when the amount of material which has been piled in the stacking tray has reached a predeterminable value.

It is also an object of our invention to provide a stacking mechanism which will neatly and effectively stack the sheets of recorded material, and it is a still further object of our invention to provide a device which will automatically render the machine inoperative when the amount of material collected in the collecting tray has reached a predeterminable value.

The invention will best be understood by reference to the drawing in which Fig. 1' shows one embodiment of the invention.

Referring to Fig. 1, there is shown the details of one form of cutting apparatus and the stacking apparatus and their relative arrangement with respect to the rest of the machine. It should be borne in mind that the drawing is not to scale but is drawn purely for the purpose of showing the inventive concept and correlation of parts. The facsimile receiver frame it is skeleton-like in nature and a portion of the supporting framework is indicated by this numeral. Supported by the frame is a driving motor (not shown for purposes of clarity) which is adapted to drive the various rotating parts of the apparatus. The recording drum H is driven by the driving motor, and supported in intimate relationship thereto are the presser or striker bars l2. The recording material It is passed across the periphery of roller M to the periphery of drum H, and thence over friction drive rollers I?) to the friction drive rollers i6, thence past the cutting mechanism to friction rollers ii. The carbon material has not been shown since it is fed merely by means of drive rollers from the roll, thence into intimate relationship with the recording paper at the recording drum and then is re-rolled, and this apparatus as claimed does not concern either the movement of nor the disposal of the carbon paper. The driving motor drives a shaft 20 which is appropriately mounted in bearing members and contains at various portions 2| and 22 worm arrangements which are adapted to drive or cause to rotate friction roller l6 and the shaft 23 with the correct relative speeds each to the other. Mounted on shaft 23 are two cam members 24 and 25 with appropriate slots cut into their periphery.

The action of the stacking device is as follows: It will have been noted that the slot cut in the periphery of cam I25 is in advance of the position of the slot cut in the periphery of the cam 24. The reason for this is that the recording material must travel a fair distance after it has been out before it may be stacked and, of course, this timing may be made by the positioning of the controlling slots in the two cams referred to. When the cam I25 rotates to such a position that the cam rider Hi0 gets to the edge of the slot contained therein, upon a small turning of the cam, the arm 20 will plunge into the slot due to the action of spring 28. When this is done the arm I02 is drawn out of supporting relationship with respect to detent Hi6 and withdraws a considerable distance therefrom. When this withdrawal takes place, the unit consisting of arms I01, I89, H0, and III will, due to gravity, rotate about axis I08, thus giving the paper a short push downwardly through the bars H2 and into the stacker tray. The position of this member comprising elements llil and HI when it drops is shown in dotted form. The downward motion is however limited since the backward motion of the crank arm Hill is not comparatively great and, therefore, the detent pin Hi6 will come sharply into contact with the arm I02. Since this arm is held by a spring I04, it will act as a resilient buffer, and also as the rider H30 moves up wardly out of the slot in the cam i255, the detent will be pushed upwardly again in a comparatively short time, thus rotating arm I01 about the axis- !88 and withdrawing the bars Hi from contact with the paper.

It has been hereinbefore stated that one of the objects of this invention was to provide a device .which, when the recording material had been stacked to a predeterminable height, the machine would automatically shut off so as to obviate con tinuous running of the machine when the material is not removed. For this purpose, there is provided on the same shaft as is the member I01, an elliptically shaped cam and, adjacent thereto are two electrical contacts 8!. Also on the shaft on which is mounted the two cams 24 and I25 is mounted a third cam 82 having a relatively small slot out in its face, and appurtenant thereto is a rider and arm 83, the latter being so mounted that it will not drop into the cam slot when the slot comes opposite it but will merely engage with the face of the cam as the face rotates opposite it.

The action of this arrangement is as follows: Normally, the slot in cam 82 will come opposite the contactor 83, which incidentally forms an electrical switch with the cam at a time when the dropper, whose arm is indicated at I09, is being actuated. The contacts closed by the elliptical cam form a switch which is joined in parallel to the switch arrangement formed by the cam 82 and the rider and arm 83. Now, as a result, during normal operation of the machine the contacts 8i remain open, and at the time when the slot in 82 comes opposite the rider, the electric motor energizing circuit would be broken but for the fact that its parallel switch arrangement which comprise the contacts Bl are forced upwardly into contact with each other by the elongated edge of the elliptical cam forcing against the contacts. These contacts close when the dropper is almost completing its upward swing and, in actual practice, the slot in the cam 82 comes opposite the rider on arm 83 at a time when the dropper is at the bottom of its stroke. Now, where the material is normally removed from the tray, the downward swing of the dropper is sufiiciently great to close the contacts 8|. However, as the material piles up in the tray, the downward swing of the dropper is limited and, accordingly, one of the contacts BI is not forced upwardly by the elliptical cam quite enough to join with the other contact, and as the slot in cam 82 comes opposite the contact on arm 83, this switch is also broken and the motor circuit is deenergized, whereas normally with the arm taking its full drop, one of these two switches is closed at all times and it is only when both remain open that the motor stops. This will, of course, depend on the downward swing of the dropper and is entirely predeterminable and, therefore, can be set for any desired amount of paper stacked in the stacking tray.

What is claimed is:

1. A sheet material stacking device comprising an apertured support over which said sheet material is adapted to be passed, a pivoted first lever arm, means for subjecting said lever arm to a stress tending to turn said arm about its pivot, means for normally opposing said stress, said latter means being adapted to intermittently release said opposing stress in synchronism with the passage of said material, a second pivoted lever arm, a detent mounted on said second arm, an arm joined to said second arm and adapted to force the sheet material through the apertured support, and a member joined to said first lever arm, and a resilient member connected to said latter member and to said first lever arm whereby said latter member acts as a resilient support to said detent.

2. A sheet material stacking device comprising C lever arms for resiliently supporting the second of said lever arms by the first of said lever arms in one direction of its motion, said independent means comprising a detent device operatively associated with one of said lever arms and means operatively associated with the other of said lever arms and in contact with said detent, said latter means being fixedly held against forces applied thereto from one direction and resilient to forces applied thereto from the opposite direction.

3. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein said apertured support comprises a plurality of rodlike members spaced apart from each other.

4. A sheet material stacking device comprising an apertured support over which said sheet material is adapted to be passed, a pivoted first bell crank lever, means pivotally fixed to said first bell crank lever and adapted to contact said sheet material when said bell crank lever is moved about the pivot thereof, a detent mounted on one arm of said bell crank lever, a cam member having a portion of the periphery thereof irregular in contour, a second bell crank lever pivotally supported, a detent device mounted on one of the normally forcing the detent device mounted on said second bell crank lever into engagement with the peripheral face of said cam member whereby said bell crank arm is moved about the pivot thereof in accordance with the contour of the peripheral face of said cam member and inde pendent means mounted on said second bell crank lever and resiliently held against the detent member mounted on said first bell crank lever, for normally holding the member pivotally mounted on said first bell crank lever and adapted to contact the sheet material out of engagement with said sheet material and for withdrawing the support therefrom in accordance with changes in the peripheral contour of said cam member.

5. Apparatus in accordance with claim 4, wherein said independent means comprises a lever arm pivotally supported between extremities thereof by said second bell crank lever and having a detent device mounted adjacent one end thereof and a spring member for forcing said detent normally into engagement with an edge of said second bell crank lever.

MINA R. JONES, Ercecutrizc of the Estate of Nevell R. Jones, De-

ceased.

BENJAMIN R. CARSON. 

